Eamon Blog

Today's Shelf Pull: Neil Young, Freedom

The same song at both doors, different weather between them

Today's Shelf Pull: Neil Young, Freedom. Read Eamon Lane’s story from Kilmorna in Listowel, with the people, records, art or town life behind it.

Neil Young gives Freedom a useful shape: the same song at either end, with plenty of unsettled ground between. On vinyl, its four sides offer stopping places, but not neat compartments. The quieter songs and the electric ones keep complicating each other's mood.

Released in 1989, the album moves between acoustic intimacy and rough electric force without treating either as the whole truth. There is warmth here, though it rarely feels like reassurance. Even a gentler passage can leave something unresolved rather than tidying the room.

The opening Rockin' In The Free World makes its point in a stripped-back setting; the closing version brings the full band. That contrast is worth keeping in mind throughout. Freedom does not simply get louder. It keeps changing the terms of the conversation.

This Reprise Records edition presents the album across two LPs, with three tracks on each side. That is a description of the running order, not a promise about the sound. The interest lies in what those neighbours bring out in one another.

Side A puts Crime In The City (Sixty To Zero Part 1) between the opening song and Don't Cry. At 8:45, it occupies more time than either neighbour. The extended narrative asks for a different sort of attention from the directness of the opener.

It is a useful early adjustment. Rather than treating the familiar song as a complete introduction, listen for how the longer piece stretches the album's sense of scale. A record that appeared ready to declare itself now has room to follow a story.

Side B turns towards Hangin' On A Limb before Eldorado and The Ways Of Love. The fragile character of the first song makes the electric abrasion of Eldorado matter more. Contrast here is not decoration; it changes how exposed the quieter writing feels.

The Ways Of Love brings a reflective warmth to the end of that side. Warmth need not mean a resolution. After the changes in texture around it, the song offers somewhere to rest your attention without suggesting that everything has been settled.

Side C places Someday, On Broadway and Wrecking Ball together. It is a sequence worth approaching without sorting the album into soft songs and hard songs first. Someday's reflective mood and the electric restlessness elsewhere make those categories feel rather too tidy for the job.

On Broadway is one place to attend to the distorted guitar as an active part of the expression, rather than a coating applied over the song. The roughness is part of the argument. It gives this stretch of Freedom an edge that comfort cannot quite absorb.

Wrecking Ball follows, completing a side whose three songs each run close to five minutes. That relatively even allocation of time is a small but useful contrast with Side A. Here, no single long narrative takes possession of the side.

There is no need to make each song stand for an entire phase of Young's work. Freedom is more interesting at the level of these local changes: a fragile piece beside an abrasive one, or a reflective mood interrupted by electric impatience.

Side D sets No More before the much shorter Too Far Gone, then returns to Rockin' In The Free World. The timings alone suggest a change of scale: 6:03, 2:47 and 4:41. The brief middle song deserves attention rather than being treated as a corridor.

Too Far Gone brings another contemplative pause before the closing performance. In that position, its brevity has a purpose for the listener: a small space to notice vulnerability before the band makes the final statement.

When Rockin' In The Free World returns, the title is familiar but the surroundings have changed. You have heard enough doubt, tenderness and abrasion to meet it differently. The ending answers the opening without cancelling the intervening songs.

For today's shelf pull in Listowel, that is the invitation: give Freedom its full sequence. The big song opens the door, but the less immediately imposing moments make the visit worth staying for.

On the shelf today:

Neil Young - Freedom

2LP, 1989

Folk / Songwriter

EUR 39.95

Available from The Kilmorna Collection, Listowel

Buy or reserve: https://www.thekilmornacollection.com/vinyl/neil-young-freedom

Buying vinyl records in Ireland: https://www.thekilmornacollection.com/vinyl-records-ireland

On the shelf today

Neil Young - Freedom

2LP / Folk / Songwriter / 1989

EUR39.95 / Available now

Order / Reserve